Filters for Discourses
Shri Kishore Ram asked: During a long discussion with Shri Karthik and Shri Hrishikesh, we noticed the following point:- 1) In the control of doing sins, You have told that either fear for punishments (bhaya) or love to God (bhakti) must be there. In my practical experience, I find bhakti is more powerful in such control. In bhakti also, taking human incarnation as God is giving more effective result. Please elaborate on this practical aspect useful for the spiritual effort.
Swami replied: Selecting bhakti over bhaya itself indicates that the soul having such experience is really a blessed soul since such spiritual aspirant is in the rare Nivrutti line. This point itself proves that one in millions only belongs to this line in which sinful attitudes are controlled...
Pradhama Anuvaakah (First part): 1) Faith associated with knowledge is Kaalabhairava. He is seated on the dog, which represents faith. The four Vedas follow God Datta as four dogs. Hence, Kaalabhairava represents faith obtained through knowledge or sharp-deep analysis, which is not blind faith. It is not faith with rigid ignorance whereas it is faith attained after doing perfect analysis. The faith is based on reason and not based on blind ignorance...
[Shri Datta Swami composed four Upanishats in Sanskrit using Vedic meters. Each Upanishat is again sub-divided into four parts and each part is called as ‘Anuvaaka’. We are presenting below the translation in the form of explanation of each hymn (verse) done by Shri Datta Swami Himself. – Dr. C. Annapurna, Prof. of Hindi, Central University, Hyderabad]
Anuvaakah (First part): 1) Datta is defined as the unimaginable God given to humanity through a medium and Datta is that divine personality on seeing whom, you will not see anybody or anything...
[Opponent:- Awareness is God. God became every soul due to His ignorance like a person entering the dream due to his ignorance. When the person in dream awakens, he becomes original awaken person. Similarly, this soul on leaving ignorance awakens and becomes original God. The conversion of soul into unimaginable awareness by merge with Eshwara leads to impossibility.
Theorist:- We must always remember that all the points mentioned regarding a soul are only the points of similarity with God. In simile, points of difference also exist based on which you must differentiate soul from God...
Shri Kartik asked: 1) [The following is an argument based on Your teachings in a forum - “Whenever a soul wants to attract other souls it is only out of a desire for fame, which has its root in egoism. If one makes himself a zero, he will become the hero, since the grace or power of God enters into him.”
Argument from opponent: "Someone is outraged at something. They have a good and worthwhile cause but realize that alone it will be impossible to realize it and together with others...
Swami replied:- My comment means the attitude to be present in the theoretical phase, which provokes anybody to do its related action. Of course, when you do an action for fame, the root of which is always ego, such action may have the required force of intention in the duration of its practical implementation...
Shri Kartik asked:1) Can you please explain the quality of fearlessness and how it’s relevant in the spiritual path?
Swami replied:- Fearlessness is required initially as self-confidence before putting effort in the spiritual path. The monism of Shankara gives such initial kick before starting the spiritual journey. But, this alone is not sufficient because if that alone continues in you, you lose seriousness in the effort since you feel that you are already God and further effort is useless. This leads to overconfidence and subsequent ego, resulting in your downfall. Fear for the inevitable (theory of unimaginable domain is the basis of such inevitability...
[Opponent: Speciality of knowledge of human incarnation can’t be standardized since the liking of receivers is in many ways. Due to this multiplicity of psychology of receivers, you can’t call any specific knowledge as special knowledge. In such case, how to identify the human incarnation by a standardized special knowledge?
Theorist:- The Veda says that God speaks special knowledge (Prajnaanam Brahma). The prefix ‘pra’ means special or excellent, which is specific to God and also specific to a set of receivers. It is specific to God in its excellent presentation without spoiling the ultimate truth and at the same time, it is specific to a set of receivers so that such receivers assimilate...
[Opponent:- You may reject us to compare unimaginable awareness with imaginable awareness. But, the awareness of Eshwara is imaginable since Hiranyagarbha was also an individual soul created in the beginning of this creation and hence can be said as the ordinary imaginable awareness or soul leading to monism between God and ordinary soul.
Theorist:- Unimaginable awareness means that some unimaginable item is doing the work of knowing some object. Here, work (kriyaa) and working element (kaarakam) exist separately. When you are comparing imaginable awareness to unimaginable awareness, the common point of comparison is awareness or work done in the process of knowing. The working elements are imaginable and unimaginable...
Shri Kartik asked: 1) Suppose a person who is used to eating meat since childhood onwards cuts and eats an animal, it is not sinful for him since he does not know it is wrong. But if someone who has been raised as a vegetarian since childhood onwards (such as a temple priest) eats meat at a later time in life, it is definitely sinful for him because he is doing a sin with full knowledge. This is what one of my relatives feels. Please clarify Swami.
Swami Replied: If you touch fire with your finger due to ignorance thinking that it is red light, will the finger be burnt or not? The sin is not subjective since it is purely objective. The sin arises due to the suffering of the animal or bird (object) you kill and not due to your ignorance or knowledge (subject). When everybody knows that the animal or bird cut is suffering a lot in leaving its life, I don’t understand about the so called ‘ignorance’ mentioned by you. While walking, if your foot step kills an ant, you can use this word ignorance since it is without intention. In killing a bird or animal with knife, there is not even an iota of ignorance...
Shri Anil asked: 1) When divine actors like Rama, Sita, Lakshmana etc., act in roles to preach an ideal to humanity, do they suffer really in their punishments? 2) Is there possibility of realization, repentance and non-repetition of sin in the case of these divine actors also?
Swami Replied: 1) An actor while acting in a role may really suffer by real identification with that role and then we say that the actor lived in the role. Such type of acting is essential in a cinema since such acting will lead to the success of the cinema and the actor may be rewarded more. But, there is no such necessity in the case of divine actors...
Questions on the Ramayana from Smt. Devi w/o Dr. Nikhil
1) Why is it necessary to understate the sacrifice of Lord Rama, in order to prove the greatness of Lakshmana?
[Question by Devi: You have repeatedly stated that the apparent injustice done to Sita was nothing but the punishment for her verbal abuse of Lakshmana, who was one of the highest devotees and an embodiment of purity and sacrifice. You have mentioned of Lakshmana’s sacrifice, when he left his wife...
Swami Replied: Rama was leading family life in the hut and whether children were born or not born is in no way concerned with the main point that while Rama was with family life, Lakshmana watched outside the hut without family life. This point makes the test more severe so that omniscient Rama wanted to examine mind of Lakshmana whether Lakshmana even thought about this in any fraction...
[Opponent (Purvapakshi):- It is practically impossible to cross the boundary of imaginable domain or space or universe. Due to this impossibility of practical verification, the unimaginable domain after the boundary of imaginable domain is only a logical hypothesis (Yukti), but not truth that can be verified practically and experienced directly (Anubhava). Our hypothesis is that the domain after the boundary of imaginable domain is also imaginable. In the absence of practical verification, our hypothesis has also 50% probability. In such case, how can you establish your hypothesis of unimaginable domain, which has also 50% probability only?
Theorist (Siddhaanti):- If you say that the domain after the boundary of imaginable domain is also imaginable, then, there is no boundary of imaginable domain since imaginable domain is continuously extending. In that case, we have to accept that the imaginable domain (space or universe) is really infinite. If it is so, the components of universe...
Shri Anil asked: 1) Why Sita was punished by Rama in this world itself? 2) Is there difference between peaceful death and accidental death? 3) Is there any relationship between the wave nature of nervous energy (mind) and stability of mind?
Swami replied: 1) Abusing such a great devotee like Lakshmana, who never saw Sita above her feet with a false allegation that he followed her to the forest waiting for an opportunity to marry her in case Rama dies, is the most worst horrible sin. Intensive sins are punished immediately in this world itself. This is a part of main rule of deeds and fruits...
Panchadasha Adhyaayah (Fifteenth Chapter)
[If you argue that I can’t show the hell to you and hence, hell doesn’t exist, it is not correct because you also can’t show Me the absence of hell in this infinite space by taking Me along with you to show the entire space having no hell. This results in 50-50 probability of existence of hell in this infinite space...
Shri Anil asked: 1) A minister told that cancer is due to sin as per the divine plan. The cancer patients protested against this. What is your opinion? 2) Is death a fixed concept? 3) Lakshmana served Rama without food and sleep in the forest for 14 years. What is your comment on this devotion?
Swami Replied: 1) The concept is correct, but, the way of presentation of the concept is not correct. As a minister, he should not talk about philosophy. He should talk about the remedies that can be provided to the patients from the Government. Even a saint giving a discourse on spiritual knowledge cannot introduce this concept in such a direct way. This shows that only cancer-patients are sinners and not other patients. Scripture says that the sin done in the previous birth results in disease causing suffering...
[Monism, inseparable dualism and dualism can be explained in terms of the worldly relationships existing between different individuals also. One life partner says that he/she and the other life partner are one and the same in any thought, any word and any action. This is perfect monism even though both are different individuals. Thus, you can find perfect monism of Shankara in two different items also. If you take father...
Chaturdasha Adhyaayah (Fourteenth Chapter )
[Only one concept is explained in several ways in different times to different sets of people following the nature of human psychology. The Veda says the same (Ekam sat vipraa bahudhaa vadanti). If you teach a concept, which is totally against the concept of the receiver, it will be repelled totally due to ego of receiver. The receiver feels that if he accepts your concept totally, which is against his concept, he feels that it establishes that you are the scholar of right knowledge...
[The word God is actually confined to the absolute unimaginable God only and the unimaginable events called as miracles are the only basis to identify the existence of unimaginable God. In the absence of the miracles in this world, take it to be sure that God will disappear totally in this world because unimaginable events or miracles alone give the perception-authority for the existence of the absolute unimaginable God...
Shri Durga Prasad asked: While Shankara made His mother to agree for His renunciation (Samnyaasa) through the drama of the crocodile, Sri Ragahvendra Swami took the same renunciation even against the consent of His wife. How to correlate both these?
Swami replied: As per the ancient tradition and scripture, the permission of mother is only required and hence Shankara made such play to get permission from His mother as per the scripture and tradition. The mother or father is to be served in her/his old age. But, the main point is that the bond with God is greater than any family bond. If the mother of Shankara didn’t agree in that play, He would have quit the house like Raghavendra Swami. Both these are quitting the house for the sake of propagation...
[The miracle conveys the existence of some unimaginable nature thereby indicating the unimaginable domain as a proof of the existence of unimaginable God as its source. A miracle makes us to believe the existence of unimaginable power by which it is made sure that we can’t escape the punishments for our sins. It means that even if we escape the imaginable judicial system with imaginable procedures by tricks, bribes
Filters for Discourses